Tidy Tidbits: Brain Food

The season is in full swing and that means lectures, plays, concerts and the like.  This week was packed with activity, all of it stimulating and enjoyable.

SARASOTA INSTITUTE OF LIFELONG LEARNING (SILL)

It’s time for my once a year plug for this marvelous organization.  For 40 years SILL has been presenting notable speakers on global issues and introducing or re-introducing audiences to music performers, creators and producers.  The two series, Music Mondays and Global Affairs, are each given in multiple locations and this past Monday morning, 800 people turned out at Church of the Palms for skilled interviewer June LaBell in conversation with the famous opera baritone, Sherrill Milnes, and his wife, Maria Zouves.  Now retired from performing, Milnes and his wife run a program to coach and nurture rising young singers.  On Wednesday, we joined an equally large crowd to hear Michael Pillsbury, a former defense policy advisor, on intelligence operations between the U.S. and China.  Given that I’m currently watching season 2 of The Americans, I found his stories of failed and successful intelligence efforts and agents especially fascinating.

FILM OF THE WEEK

The Danish Girl.  The opening scenes of Copenhagen’s port area and the rural landscapes are just gorgeous—appropriately lovely cinematography for a film about two artists, Einar and Gerda Wegener.  I think the film could have been more tightly edited, but it is certainly worth seeing and most notable for the stellar performances by its two leads, Eddie Redmayne as Einar, later Lili Elbe, and Alicia Vikander as Gerda.  Set in the 1920’s, it relates the story of a transgendered individual at a time when such a condition was generally unknown and unnamed; you were insane or just plain deluded.  Lili Elbe was a pioneer as this film makes clear, and  it’s an interesting companion piece to a 21st century account, Becoming Nicole, which I commented on in an earlier blog.

AUTHOR TALK

I have not attended that many author talks, but I thought Trompe L’oeil by Nancy Reisman was so beautifully written and such an intricately structured novel that I had to go hear her.  In college I got to hear author John Knowles on stage.  I was very disappointed.  He was shy and retiring in demeanor and so inarticulate I couldn’t imagine how he could have written the much-touted and much discussed, (particularly in high school English classes) novel, A Separate Peace.  I immediately revised my expectation that good writers must be good public speakers.nancyreisman

But Reisman did not disappoint.  Featured at Sarasota 1, our local independent bookstore, she read selected passages from the novel, offered some additional insights into how the work came about and noted that she was interested in the importance of place as well as family dynamics.  Because the work features descriptions of several Renaissance paintings, I asked if she herself painted.  She does not, but her mother is a visual artist and so she grew up surrounded by art.  A professor of creative writing at Vanderbilt, Reisman does most of her writing in the summer.  For devoted fans, like me, that means a longer wait until her next book.

 

 

 

Reisman photo:  www.parnassusbooks.net

New York: Wonderful Whitney

On our last full day in New York, we made our first visit to the new Whitney Museum of American Art (to give its full name). Now located in the Meatpacking District a short walk from our apartment, it is in a stunning new building by Renzo Piano. For anyone who is familiar with Renzo’s other work, there are some recurring elements: lots of glass, metal staircases both internal and external, a public space on the roof, and a creative use of natural light. [I take the liberty of using his first name since I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Renzo a bit in San Francisco and have visited him in both Paris and Genoa.] He was the architect for the California Academy of Sciences (2008) in Golden Gate Park and The Shard (2013) in London.

IMG_7698

The lines for entry were long, but you can bypass them if you buy your tickets online or, like we did, buy a membership. With all the time we plan to spend in New York, it seemed a wise investment.

 

 

 

 

An exhibit of works by Frank Stella had just opened and we did that first. Colorful paintings and almost ornate sculptures, sometimes of found objects, dominated the galleries. These were all large works. Outside were several complex star sculptures, one metal and one made of wood.

IMG_7676

IMG_7688

 

IMG_7692

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_7678

 

 

IMG_7701

IMG_7693

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The museum overlooks the High Line so while outside you can gaze down and watch the never-ending stream of casual walkers, commuters, and tourists.

IMG_7705

 

 

 

 

 

The other exhibit we spent time in was a retrospective of the works of Archibald Motley (1891-1981), an African American artist who painted the jazz scene as well as portraits of black society, both high and low, in 1920’s and 30’s Chicago. I had never heard of Motley nor seen any of his works and was drawn in by the intensity of his images and his use of strong vibrant, almost neon, colors. Unfortunately for me, the works I wanted to photograph were the ones where no photos were permitted.  But here is an example I found on the web.

NightLife. 1943 (https://maryckhayes.wordpress.com)
NightLife. 1943 (https://maryckhayes.wordpress.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book of the Week

The Wall St. Journal reviewed it several weeks ago and the NY Times this past Sunday. The book is Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt. This is the absorbing, painful account of one young boy’s journey to becoming a female. Wyatt was one of two identical twins adopted by Kelly and Wayne Maines. From the age of two, Wyatt, unlike his brother Jonas, preferred dolls and girlish things. In a few years, he began to articulate his dislike of his “male parts” and his preference for female clothes and referred to himself as a “girl boy.” Eventually his parents allowed him to legally change his name.

This book is as much her parents’ story as it is Nicole’s. Her mother was tirelessly supportive, preparing teachers for her then son’s differences, getting him into counseling, seeking appropriate medical help, and then being there for Nicole to ensure her safety and emotional well-being as she outwardly and publicly became more of a girl. For her father, who envisioned teaching both his sons to hunt and shoot (pastimes he enjoyed growing up), the journey was a struggle and he left a lot of it to his wife. Over the course of Nicole’s growing up (she is now college age), society evolved and there is the beginning of greater acceptance of transgender individuals. Some of this change is due to a lawsuit filed by the Maines. All parenting brings a set of challenges, but these parents had an especially complex situation to navigate. Nutt’s inclusion of the latest studies on gender identity is helpful contextual information.

 

[Photos by the author unless otherwise indicated; some rights reserved]